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To ask Her Majesty's Government under what authority the Crown Prosecution Service
(CPS) has agreed a definition of racially and religiously aggravated crime that is
wider than the legal definition under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and Criminal
Justice Act 2003, as indicated in the CPS Public statement on prosecuting racist and
religious hate crime published in August.

<p>In order to charge and prosecute hate crimes, the CPS uses the legal definition
provided by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and Criminal Justice Act 2003. The shared
police and CPS definition of hate crime is based on the perception of the victim or
any other person and allows for case flagging and monitoring as well as appropriate
victim support, it does not affect the charge.</p><p>This flagging definition comes
from the recommended definition in the Macpherson report which was published in 1999
as a result of the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. The Macpherson Report
found a lack of confidence within communities that hate crime was being treated seriously
by the police and Criminal Justice System and recommended that the definition of a
racist incident should be, ‘any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim
or any other person’. Putting the victim’s perception at the heart of the definition
gives a clear signal that, once flagged as a hate crime, an appropriate investigation
will follow and evidence to support the law on hostility will be proactively sought.
The definition seeks to encourage victims to report and to increase confidence in
the Criminal Justice System.</p>

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in enabling the National
Fund charity to make appropriate donations; and whether they intend to apply to the
courts for a scheme allowing the Fund to be used for its original purpose.

<p>The National Fund was created in 1928 with an initial anonymous donation of £500,000
with the aim of eventually extinguishing the national debt. It has accumulated significant
funds through further donations and income over the years, as set out in the <strong><ins
class="ministerial">attached </ins></strong>chart <del class="ministerial">below</del>.
It is currently estimated to be worth over £460 million.</p><p>The terms of the deed
of Trust for the National Fund are such that the Trustees are required to accumulate
the net income and profits of the trust fund until the value of the fund along with
its accumulated income, when added to the value of any other funds applicable for
the same purpose, is sufficient to discharge the entirety of the National Debt. Given
the terms of the trust, the money is currently ‘locked’ in the fund.</p><p>The Attorney
General’s Office is working with the Charity Commission and the Fund’s trustees to
help resolve this legally complicated matter.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which local authorities in England have taken part
in the Weekly Collection Support Scheme; how many authorities took part in the expression
of interest process; which have subsequently received financial support, and how much;
and of those, which have reinstated weekly collections of general (“grey” or “residual”)
waste, which have used the support to collect food waste separately, and which have
used it in other ways.

<p>In March 2012, my Department received initial expressions of interest from 151
lead local authorities, which resulted in bids from 113 local authorities. Some local
authorities submitted multiple expressions of interest which were consolidated before
final bid stage. The final bids were then assessed in line with the published criteria,
and recipients then awarded funding.</p><p>A detailed table listing the schemes that
are being supported is attached and on my Department’s website.</p><p> </p><p>It may
be helpful to the noble Lord to outline what this Government has delivered since 2010:</p><p>
</p><ul><li>Safeguarded weekly collections for 6 million households through the Weekly
Collection Support Scheme as well as championing innovation and best practice; the
answer of 14 May 2014, <em>Official Report</em>, House of Commons 646W, outlined how
14 million households in England have some form of weekly collection of smelly rubbish.</li></ul><p>
</p><p> </p><ul><li>Issued the first ever Whitehall guidance on weekly bin collections,
demolishing the myths that fortnightly bin collections are needed to save money or
increase recycling. This best practice was directly informed by the Weekly Collections
Support Scheme;</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Supported over 40 innovative reward
schemes to back recycling through the Weekly Collection Support Scheme (as pledged
in the Coalition Agreement); the winning bids for a further Recycling Rewards Scheme
for 2015-16 will be announced shortly;</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Stopped the
Audit Commission inspections which marked down councils who do not adopt fortnightly
rubbish collections, and rejected the Audit Commission guidance which advocated fortnightly
collections (“Waste Management: The Strategic Challenge and Waste Management Quick
Guide”);</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Abolished the Local Area Agreements and
National Indicator 191 imposed by Whitehall which created perverse incentives to downgrade
waste collection services;</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Scrapped the Whitehall
requirement for municipal Annual Efficiency Statements, which allowed a reduction
in the frequency of a household rubbish collection service to qualify as a “valid
efficiency” and allowed revenue from bin fines to classed as a “cashable efficiency
gain”;</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Scrapped the imposition of eco-towns
which would have had fortnightly bin collections and/or bin taxes as part of the “eco-standards”;</li></ul><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Through the Localism Act, revoked the 2008 legislation
that allowed for the imposition of new bin taxes;</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Issued
guidance to stop the imposition of illegal ‘backdoor bin charging’ on households bins;</li></ul><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Stopped funding the ‘Waste Improvement Network’ which
told councils to adopt fortnightly collections as best practice;</li></ul><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><ul><li>Challenged the incorrect interpretation by some bodies that European
Union directives require fortnightly collections, and resisted the imposition of bin
taxes by the European Union;</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Removing powers
of entry and snooping powers from bin inspectors and scrapped guidance telling councils
to rifle through families’ bins;</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Changed
building regulations and planning guidance to tackle ‘bin blight’, and worked with
the NHBC Foundation to produce new best practice guidance for house builders;</li></ul><p>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li>Changing the law through the Deregulation Bill to scrap
unfair bin fines.</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Without our active support,
Ministers are clear that weekly collections would have disappeared across England.
This Government’s approach can be contrasted with the devolved Labour-led Administration
in Wales, where fortnightly bin collections are official policy, and pilots of monthly
bin collections are being actively encouraged.</p>

<p>The Government publishes an unprecedented amount of data; departments publish details
of Ministers and Permanent Secretaries meetings' with external organisations, and
Special Advisers' meetings with senior media figures. The information requested is
not held centrally and there are no plans to extend current arrangements<ins class="ministerial">.</ins><del
class="ministerial">”</del></p><p> </p>

<p>Energy suppliers provide direct bill support for low income households through
the Government’s Warm Home Discount scheme. <del class="ministerial">As the original
impact assessment for the scheme made clear, the scheme grew in part out of a concern
about affordability of energy bills and accessibility of appropriate tariffs for those
on low incomes. The scheme is now hugely successful.</del> <del class="ministerial">This
year the</del> <ins class="ministerial">The </ins>Warm Home<ins class="ministerial">s</ins>
Discount will<ins class="ministerial"> increase to</ins> give eligible low-income
bill payers £140 money off their energy bills, helping over 2 million people including
1.4 million of Britain’s most vulnerable pensioners.</p><p>There has been consideration
of the role of differentiated tariffs as part of the Hills Review of Fuel Poverty,
and in the development of Fuel Poverty: Framework for future action and Cutting the
cost of keeping warm, the consultation to prepare for a new fuel poverty strategy.</p><p>We
continue to monitor the impacts of the Ofgem’s Retail Market Review and wider Government
action to ensure consumers are treated fairly in the energy market and are better
able to the choose a deal that suits them. We expect to keep the case for further
action under review as part of this.</p>

<p>The department’s expectations of effective governance in multi academy trusts (MATs)
is set out in the Academies Financial Handbook and Governance Handbook. This includes
the skills, knowledge and behaviours that boards need to demonstrate to be effective.
Both handbooks are currently being updated and once completed, copies will be <ins
class="ministerial">placed</ins> <del class="ministerial">available</del> in the Libraries
of both Houses. The Academies Financial Handbook is updated annually.</p><p> </p><p>Through
the Academies Ambassadors Programme, over 1200 volunteers with commercial and business
experience have been recruited to join academy boards.</p><p> </p>

<p>There are a number of resources available to support computing education and schools
are best placed to decide what will be most effective for their pupils.</p><p>The
national curriculum in computing emphasises the academic discipline of computer science.
Through studying topics such as computational logic, algorithms and data representation,
pupils are obtaining insight into how the digital technologies that they use every
day actually work<del class="ministerial"> and understanding how these technology
products result from human ingenuity and rational design processes</del>. We want
young people to have the opportunity to<del class="ministerial"> actively </del>create
new technologies, rather than being passive consumers of them.</p><p>The Government
has spent more than £4.5 million over the past three years to support schools in delivering
high quality computing teaching. This includes £3 million for Computing At School
to build a national network of over 350 ‘Master Teachers’ in Computer Science whom
schools can commission to provide training for their teachers.</p>

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Elizabeth Truss MP, Parliamentary
Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcare, that "our 15 year-olds are up
to three years behind their peers in the top-performing countries in reading and mathematics",
what action they propose to address this.

<p>The Department for Education believes that improving the quality of teaching in
literacy and numeracy is crucial to building the foundation for future study and work.
The Government has revised the national curriculum and set more rigorous and challenging
content in English and mathematics to match the highest performing countries around
the world. The new programmes of study for English and maths will challenge pupils
to realise their potential in an increasingly competitive global market.</p><p> </p><p>The
new maths GCSE will have more content, be more challenging and – alongside English
- will be double weighted in school performance tables. The Department has recently
allocated £11 million to fund <del class="ministerial">over</del> 32 new maths hubs
to support a more challenging maths GCSE to improve the quality of maths education.
This initiative, which includes a teacher exchange programme with Shanghai, will enable
every school and college in England, from early years to the post-16 sector, to access
locally-tailored support in all areas of maths teaching and learning.</p><p> </p><p>The
new national curriculum for English places a greater emphasis on reading and requires
pupils to study a range of books, poems and plays.</p><p>The national curriculum for
English will give teachers greater flexibility and freedom which will help to raise
standards and expectations for all pupils. It has been significantly slimmed down
and will free up teachers to use their professional judgement to design curricula
that meet the needs of their pupils.</p><p> </p><p>The new English language GCSE will
place greater demands on pupils and has more emphasis on those skills demanded by
employers. The new English literature GCSE will build on this foundation, and encourage
students to read, write and think critically.</p>

<p>The Memorandum of Understanding between the Home Office and the Department for
Education outlines the purpose and the personal pupil data shared. The Memorandum
of Understanding<ins class="ministerial"> has been deposited</ins> <del class="ministerial">is
available</del> in the house library.</p><p> </p>

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) maintained schools, (2) academies, and
(3) free schools, invited outside organisations to provide careers guidance and advice
to their pupils in the academic years (a) 2013–14, (b) 2014–15, and (c) 2015–16.

<p>The Government does not collect data on the number of schools that invite outside
organisations to provide careers advice and guidance to pupils.</p><p> </p><p>Schools
have a duty to secure independent careers guidance on the full range of education
and training options, including apprenticeships and other technical education options.
Sources of independent careers guidance can include, but not be limited to, external
organisations such as education and training providers, employers and careers<ins
class="ministerial">professionals.</ins> <del class="ministerial">providers.</del></p><p>
</p><p>The Government’s statutory guidance on careers is clear that schools should
give other providers who wish to do so the opportunity to engage with pupils, on school
premises, to inform them directly about what they offer. These could include further
education and sixth form colleges, studio schools, university technical colleges and
employers and other providers delivering apprenticeships.</p><p> </p><p>The Government
has established The Careers &amp; Enterprise Company to increase the level of employer
input into schools. The Company’s Enterprise Adviser Network is now live in over 1,300
<del class="ministerial">of the</del> secondary schools and colleges across the country,
connecting young people with local employers to provide experiences of the workplace.</p><p>
</p><p>Careers organisations provide another external source of advice and guidance.
The statutory guidance encourages schools to consult a register of accredited careers
organisations when securing access to face-to-face careers guidance.</p><p> </p>